Public Finance

Articles from July 2007

When Gordon Brown first got his feet under the table at the Treasury way back in 1997 he promised to hit the ground running. Ten years on and his protégé Ed Balls has wasted no time in following suit.Charged with the Department for Children, Schools...

Whitehall-set public service targets are to be slashed and councils given greater scope to boost regional economies, the Treasury said this week - indications that the new government may be putting some substance behind its localism rhetoric.In his first...

Campaigners for better council housing should not stand in the way of families who wish to own their own home, a leading trade unionist has warned.Jack Dromey, deputy general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, said local authorities...

September* SEPTEMBER 3-4Warwick Business School and National School of Government conference - Excellence: creating public value in partnership with citizensSpeakers include: Professor John Benlngton, Warwick Business School; Gerry McSorley, director,...

How can ministers in Whitehall change the behaviour of the public services without resorting to the clunking fist of state control?It's a question Chief Secretary to the Treasury Andy Burnham, one of Gordon Brown's sharp young blades, sought to answer...

Patients attending independent sector treatment centres are safe, but it is impossible to say how their care compares with the NHS as the centres systematically fail to provide the relevant data, the health watchdog has said.The Healthcare Commission's...

Local authorities understand what sustainable development means and, thanks to Sir Nicholas Stern's review, the economic benefits it can deliver. So why do they find it difficult to do?Actually, there are some good reasons and they are rooted in the...

Can we afford to be sustainable? That is the question facing local authorities, particularly in the light of the forthcoming tight Comprehensive Spending Review. The biggest problems lie in large complex procurement, construction and waste infrastructure...

These days, political parties of widely differing hues are all loudly proclaiming that green is their favourite colour.David Cameron fought the May local elections under the slogan: 'Vote blue, go green'. Gordon Brown's even newer Labour has taken care...

How do we organise ourselves for the fight against climate change? There is a wealth of concern, but few signs of a systematic approach to harnessing public action. The National Consumer Council believes that one answer is to draw on a contemporary version...

Sure Start children's centres came under fire again this week after senior MPs criticised them for not doing enough to help the most disadvantaged families.The influential Public Accounts Committee said only a third of the multi-purpose centres were...

The Cabinet Office has ordered an urgent review of the UK's civil contingencies planning following a report on the Buncefield oil depot blast, which revealed widespread public confusion about ministerial responsibilities after major incidents.In response...

The chief medical officer for England and Wales, Sir Liam Donaldson, has used his annual report to call for 'raided' public health funds to be restored.His report also noted that, a year after his initial request, a review of public health capacity and...

AU public sector regulators involved in the forthcoming Comprehensive Area Assessment regime are considering whether to include sustainability criteria in their inspection frameworks, the chair of the Audit Commission has revealed.Michael O'Higgins told...

* Britain faces the highest levels of inequality for 40 years, a survey by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has warned. The study, Poverty, wealth and place in Britain, published on July 17, showed that households in already wealthy areas had become 'disproportionately'...

Scottish ministers are to demand that unspent cash should be fully available to the Executive in the next budget round and not retained by the Treasury in London.First Minister Alex Salmond and Finance Secretary John Swinney want assurances that unspent...

Taxpayers face a 'significant risk' following the restnicturing of British Energy, with the cost of Britain's £5.3bn nuclear decommissioning liabilities expected to soar, MPs have warned.The Public Accounts Committee published a study on July 19 into...

The communities and local government select committee's report on refuse collection was a well-timed intervention into a sphere of public policy that continues to concern government. For years to come, politics will be dominated by the issue of how far...

Prime Minister Gordon Brown this week outlined plans to force benefit claimants into work - axing some payments and asking people to take jobs outside their locality.Publishing a radical welfare reform green paper on July 18, Brown and Work and Pensions...